John Kerry Interview With George Stephanopoulos

________________________________________QUESTION:
We are joined now by Secretary of State John Kerry.
Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us this morning. We’ve
got these reports now – Russian forces surrounding
Ukrainian military bases in the Crimea. Ukraine’s prime
minister says, “We are on the brink of disaster.” Is he
right?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, we hope
not. We hope it’s not going to be a disaster. What has
already happened is a brazen act of aggression in violation
of international law, in violation of the UN Charter, in
violation of the Helsinki Final Act, in violation of the
1997 Ukraine-Russia basing agreement. Russia has engaged in
a military act of aggression against another country and it
has huge risks, George. It’s a 19th century act in the
21st century that really puts at question Russia’s
capacity to be within the G-8, to
--QUESTION: All those violations, sir,
so what’s the penalty for what Russia has already
done?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, we’re busy
right now coordinating with our counterparts in many parts
of the world. Yesterday the President of the United States
had an hour-and-a-half conversation with President Putin. He
pointed out importantly that we don’t want this to be a
larger confrontation. We are not looking for a U.S.-Russia,
East-West redux here. What we want is for Russia to work
with us, with Ukraine. If they have legitimate concerns,
George, about Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, there are
plenty of ways to deal with that without invading the
country. They have the ability to work with the government;
they could work with us; they could work with the UN; they
could call for observers to be put in the country. There are
all kinds of alternatives. But Russia has chosen this
aggressive act which really puts in question Russia’s role
in the world and Russia’s willingness to be a modern
nation and part of the G-8. I think there are – they are
inviting the possibility of very serious repercussions on
trade, on investment, on assets – asset freeze, visa bans
– on the potential of actions by the global community
against this unilateral step.

QUESTION:
Let me pin you down on that, sir. Specify it: Is the United
States willing to impose sanctions if Russia doesn’t back
down? Are you willing to go to Ukraine and show solidarity
with the Ukrainians if Russia doesn’t back
down?

SECRETARY KERRY: Absolutely. And
the United States and the President is currently considering
all options; they’re all on the table. We would call on
Congress immediately to the degree that they are prepared to
be helpful, that they immediately lay down with us an
economic package in order to assist Ukraine. We think it’s
very important for the international entities – the OSCE,
the UN, NATO, the North Atlantic Council, the EU Foreign
Affairs Council, which will meet tomorrow – all need to
weigh in and I believe they will weigh in
heavily.

QUESTION: So let me just pin you
down on that. You’re saying that Congress is considering
military aid to Ukraine. You want Congress to pass military
aid to Ukraine. But do you want them to impose economic –
economic – excuse me. Do you want them to impose economic
sanctions on Russia?

SECRETARY KERRY:
They’re – it may well come that we would have to engage
in that kind of activity. Absolutely. I think all options
are on the table. There’s no question but that Russia
needs to understand this is serious. And we and the other
friends and allies engaged in this are all deadly serious
about this. You cannot behave this way in the 21st century
and sit around the table of the normal entities and pretend
that life is as usual. It is not going to be as usual, but
we believe there is an alternative. We call on Russia to
engage with the Government of Ukraine. We’re prepared to
work very closely with Russia in order to address whatever
legitimate concerns may exist. We believe there are many
alternatives before you get to an invasion, and none of
those have been tried at this point in
time.

QUESTION: But the invasion has
already happened, sir, hasn’t it?

SECRETARY
KERRY: The invasion of Crimea has already happened.
That’s absolutely accurate. And we believe that President
Putin should make the decision to roll it back. And we will
continue to press for that as well as for his legitimate
engagement with the current Government of Ukraine in order
to avoid further increase in the tension and the
crisis.

QUESTION: Sir, are there any
military options on the table? During the crisis with
Georgia, President Bush moved military warships to the
region, sent humanitarian aid on a military aircraft. Is the
U.S. prepared to do that now? Anything
more?

SECRETARY KERRY: George, the hope
of the United States and everybody in the world is not to
see this escalate into a military confrontation. That does
not serve the world well, and I think everybody understands
that. The President has all options on the table. But the
President’s preference was clearly stated yesterday in his
hour-and-a-half conversation with President Putin. President
Obama made it clear that we are prepared to work with
Russia. We understand that Russia has interests in Crimea.
The Ukraine Government is prepared to respect the base
agreement. Nobody has threatened those Russian interests.
And we’re prepared to stand up against any hooligans, any
thuggery, any individual efforts with Russians in order to
create stability in Ukraine and allow the people of Ukraine
to make their choices for the
future.

QUESTION: But do you have any
indication at all that President Putin is taking heed of
what President Obama is saying?

SECRETARY
KERRY: Well, they just had the conversation
yesterday. And the President invited him to engage with the
government. I understand there may have been one phone call.
We’re going to continue to engage diplomatically. This is
a time for diplomacy, and we will engage diplomatically as
much as we can in order to steer this away from an increase
in the tension in the level of the crisis. Nobody wants this
to spiral into a bad – a worse direction. The fact is that
there are many options available to Russia by which Russia
can see its interests met. And the most important thing to
remember here is this is not – or should not be –
East-West, Russia-United States, Russia versus Europe. This
is about the people of Ukraine, people who stood up against
snipers firing at them from the roofs, who are fighting
against the tyranny of having political opposition put in
jail.

And President Putin, I think, needs to think
carefully about Russia’s real interests here. Russia may
be able to invade Crimea, but in the end Russia will isolate
itself. There’ll be costs to the economy of Russia, costs
to Russian business, costs to Russian individuals. And
ultimately, I think, Russia will isolate itself on a global
stage that it just spent $60 billion through the Olympics to
try to present a different face on. It seems to me that if
Russia were to step back and look at where its interests
are, we ought to be able to work this out through the
diplomatic process. If Russia chooses not to, there will be
serious repercussions.

QUESTION: Does
that – do those repercussions include the U.S. not going
to the G-8 Summit in Sochi come this summer,
sir?

SECRETARY KERRY: It’s a distinct
possibility. We would hope, rather, that Russia will choose
to engage with us, to work with the Government of Ukraine,
choose a different direction. Russia has cooperated with us
on the START Treaty, on Afghanistan, on Iran. It ought to be
possible to find legitimacy in this particular moment in
order to be able to deal in a way that serves the world much
better than this choice they’ve made. We’re open to
that. We encourage that. President Obama made it clear he
prefers that. But the choice is really up to Russia at this
point.

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